


The Acquisition

by mops



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Non-Consensual Touching, Non-consensual DNA Acquisition, Trans Character, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-05 09:10:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5369744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mops/pseuds/mops
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"As for Marco... well, Marco awakened to find David standing over him with the baseball bat." Missing scene from #22.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Acquisition

**Author's Note:**

> General warning for David being a violent, threatening creep per usual, physical violence, and restraint, etc.

If there's one thing that's true about me, it's that I'm a really light sleeper. Years of nightmares and paranoia can do that to a kid. I get naps where I can and if there's any disturbance around me when I'm sleeping, I know about it. So that's how I knew something was off.

The first thing I registered was that someone else was in my room with me. The second thing I registered was that I hadn't heard my bedroom door open. I was instantly awake, eyes still shut, mind beginning to race. Who would be awake...? Ax? Tobias? My rational mind caught up with the panicking part. Ax or anyone else would wake me up first. And my window was always locked. And... there was someone else on the team we didn't quite trust.

My eyes opened and in the light filtering in from the street light outside, I saw David standing next to my bed. Leaning over and staring solemnly down at me. And he must have saw that I was awake, because then he grinned. Leered. Raised the slugger clutched in his hands.

A shot of adrenaline slammed through me and I rolled off my bed before he could react, felt the breeze off the swing of the bat as it missed my head, heard the dull sound as it hit my mattress.

David turned the moment I rose from my crouch and immediately knocked me back as I struck out at him, blindly in the half-dark. My wrist hit the bat with a painful 'thunk' and I heard it thud to the ground, rolling away across the carpet. But he didn't need it to shove me over onto the floor, press his knee into my ribcage and pin me down. I clawed at his leg, to no avail. He was bigger than me.

"Good morning, Marco," He whispered brightly.

I hissed in pain as his bony knee dug into my torso, making it hard to speak. "Breaking into a guy's room in the middle of the night like some kinda pervert? Real romantic. Maybe next time leave the deadly weapon at home. Oh, that's right." I grinned up at his face, clearer as my eyes adjusted to the dark. "You don't have one."

David's face twisted into an ugly scowl. He pressed down harder to bring his face closer to mine. Instinctively I tried to draw my head back, but it just met with the carpet. "You better watch what you say, little Marco. And what you do."

I would have spit on him if my mouth wasn't so dry. "Are you threatening me?"

"Oh, no. I'm not threatening _you_ , Marco."

There was something about the way he said it that made the skin crawl up my back. I stared evenly at him. I didn't dare breathe, let alone start morphing. He wouldn't. Admittedly, I never liked him, had a bad feeling about him from the start, but he wouldn't... My stomach drop as I realized David was everything I'd imagined him to be in all my worst-case scenarios.

David stretched his mouth into a half grin, half grimace. "That's right," He continued, "If you make a sound, if you try to morph, I'll be down the hallway and you can say bye-bye to daddy dearest before you're even a half-formed monkey."

"You're lying."

He shrugged, nonchalant and infuriating. "Maybe. You gonna take that chance?"

"You're insane," I hissed, "I say that a lot, but you're _really_ out of your mind. What do you think you're going to get out of this?"

"Even," David leaned down and casually grabbed a handful of my hair. He yanked it painfully to the side and I had to bite my lip to stop from yelping. "I'm getting even. Do you really think you're all better than me? _You think you can all treat me like garbage?_ "

"Have you maybe considered not _acting_ like garbage?"

Another yank, hard. Then David let go of my hair in favor of putting his hand on my chest and pressing down along with his knee, pinning me and squeezing out any breath for future sarcastic quips. He leaned in close and with his free hand, stuck a finger in my face. "You're a real wise-ass, you know that? Your mouth is going to get you messed up real bad one day, Marco."

Then he paused. Looked down at his hand on my chest. His eyebrows furrowed and immediately heat prickled up my neck, panic rising in my throat. "Wh-... Are you-"

That's all he got out before I took advantage of his distraction, pulled my leg between us and kicked hard. It wasn't much, not enough leverage for any real power, but it was enough to move David's weight off my body. I twisted and crawled away, scrambling frantically across the floor to reach the baseball bat laying there just within my reach. If I could get it, I could knock David out, restrain him, long enough to go get Ax or Jake or someone, any kind of backup-

David landed solidly on my back, knocking the wind out of me in a rush. He snatched up the bat before I could grab it, brought it under my chin and tugged up, trapping and choking me.

"Man," David breathed a laugh, "You must think I'm stupid or something."

That was just begging to be snapped back at with an _'I don't think, I know'_ or something, but I couldn't breathe, let alone talk shit about the guy currently digging his knee into my spine.

Suddenly, the hallway light flicked on, the glow seeping in under my door. David froze from where he was sitting on my back. Quickly, he leaned down, hissed in my ear. " _Remember_."

The shadow of my dad's feet appeared in the crack under the door. He tapped lightly on it.

"Marco? Sweetie? You alright?"

David lessened the pressure on my throat so I could speak. I hated that he knew. I couldn't say anything. Anything I said would give everything away, and if it didn't, David would. His smug confidence radiated off of him. I licked my lips. "I'm-" My voice cracked, breathless, "I'm fine, dad. Just knocked a bunch of stuff over in the dark. Sorry if I woke you."

"Don't worry about it. If... If you need to talk, you know my door's always open, right?"

I wanted to smile, if even a little bit. But I couldn't force one out of me. I wished this monster on my back was just one of my usual nightmares. "I'm fine, dad."

"Alright." He paused, shadow still in front of my door, "I love you, honey."

"I-I love you, too, dad."

The light shut off and I heard him walk away.

"Real cute." David spat, tightening the bat against my neck. "I used to have a dad, too. You know, before you _ruined my life_." He flipped me over, keeping his knee on my chest and the bat tight against my neck even as I tried to dig my blunt nails into the flesh of his hands and arms. Then... he pressed down harder, and what little air I was getting was suddenly cut off.

Oh, no. I kicked my legs wildly, trying in vain to buck him off of me. Oh god, why didn't anyone ever listen to me? I wasn't going to die in an intergalactic battle for the fate of the planet- I was going to die right here, on my dirty bedroom floor, at the hands of some kid with greasy hair and a massive inferiority complex. My lungs burned and very real fear churned in my gut. Hot, panicked tears pricked my eyes. I couldn't morph. I couldn't! David would... my dad...

Then- air! David pulled the bat up just enough for me to suck in a huge breath, to start coughing loudly and heaving.

The fear must have shown on my face, because David's stony expression stretched into a grin. He leaned forward again. "Can't say I'm not glad to see this. The Mighty Marco knocked down a peg. I'm not going to kill you, but I could if I wanted to. I want you to know that." He tapped the length of the bat against the underside of my jaw. "How's it feel, Marco? To be so helpless? To have someone else completely in control of your fate?"

He lapsed into silence as I panted, staring down at me until I realized the question wasn't rhetorical.

"Can't say it feels good," I managed, voice raspy.

"No," David said with dead seriousness, "No, it doesn't."

Then he shifted, moved the bat to free one of his hands. Reached out and pressed it, warm and sweaty from exertion, against the bare skin of my neck. I knew what was happening before it even started. Panic leaped suddenly in my throat.

"No-!" I shouted, hoarse, forgetting David's earlier threat. He just let go of the bat, used his other hand to cover my mouth. I yelled uselessly, muffled against his hand as I thrashed. "No, no, no! Don't! David, _don't_ - _!_ "

The sedation hit. I'd only felt it once before, when Ax acquired me for his human morph forever ago. The trademark acquisition trance. Back then, it felt peaceful, calm, like there was no reason to be upset at what was happening. Now it felt like a fog, like the energy was being leeched out of me. Like David was taking something from me, and he was. My legs stopped kicking and my clawing arms felt heavy. Distantly heard them fall back down at my sides with twin thuds. I stared, glazed over and unseeing, up at David. He began to work quickly.

David must have had the rope stashed somewhere, because it was suddenly in his hands. He rolled me over, propped me up as he tied and I willed my lazy limbs to do something, anything. By the time the fog cleared, I couldn't move my arms or legs. David stooped down and picked me up with only a slight grunt of effort.

"Will you stop wiggling?" David snapped, annoyed, like he hadn't just broken into my bedroom and assaulted me with a Louisville slugger, "I'm gonna drop you on your stupid head."

"Screw you!" I spat on him, finally, on the only place on him I could reach. Which happened to be his ear.

"Ugh! Gross!" David dropped me unceremoniously inside my closet, on top of all my old and dirty shoes. He wiped the spit from his face and glared at me with a sudden ferocity that actually startled me. "Yeah, I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you? And you think _I'm_ the pervert." He strode off, disappeared from view.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I squirmed, trying to see what he was doing, trying to ignore the anxious thudding in my ears. David reappeared with the bat in his hands. My breath caught in my throat. "I didn't morph." I said quickly.

"Oh, I know," David said, "Because you're stupid enough to think I'd actually kill a _human_."

I didn't like the way he said 'human.'

"But I can't leave you awake, Marco. See, I need you to be quiet for a little bit so I can play pretend."

David started changing. His eyes grew darker first. My eyes. Oh, god. My mind started racing again, thinking of all the horrible ways he was going to use my body, trick my friends, trick my father, sabotage us, anything horrible he could conceive. All with my body. He couldn't _do_ this! That was _my body!_ The rage at this violation bubbled up inside me like a fire.

But there was nothing I could do to stop him, tied up and shoved in a closet. The morph was complete. David pushed my long hair out of his eyes, looked down at himself and plucked at his now looser t-shirt. "Huh. Now this is different." David looked up, readjusted his grip on the bat. "Well, anyway. You've held me up long enough. I have a plan to get back on track."

I shoved myself backwards, eyes wide and head shaking, "Don't do this, man..."

David grinned widely at me with my own mouth. "Nighty night, Marco." And swung.


End file.
